Lagaan is a must-see movie for anyone with an interest in Indian cinema or cinema beyond Hollywood. Although very much within the mainstream Hindi cinema of Bombay/Mumbai in terms of its stars, use of song and dance and its length, Lagaan took a gamble with the domestic Indian audience. It breaks all contemporary conventions of Hindi film by being set in an Indian village during the British Raj, far away from the more usual modern metropolitan cities and exotic foreign locations.

It also seemed destined to fail internationally, given that it features a cricket match lasting longer than the average Hollywood film and avoids the melodramatic kitsch, camp style that is celebrated in the West as "Bollywood". Yet Lagaan was not only a huge hit domestically but was also only the third Indian film to ever be nominated for an Oscar in the foreign-language category, thanks to its outstanding performances, music and narrative.

On the DVD: Lagaan on DVD is presented with good picture and sound, but otherwise has little more to offer, despite being a two-disc package. The features are less than exciting, comprising 17 minutes of deleted footage with no explanation, the theatrical trailers for two other films rather than for this film and a list of films in which several key participants have worked with no clips. Most DVDs of Indian films have an extra menu for song selections but here one has to move through the scene menu. There are subtitles in several languages. --Rachel Dwyer